From Vidalia, we crossed the Mississippi River to continue further east to a beach resort in Biloxi, Mississippi to take a relaxing break after a long busy period of Alpine rallies, family visits, and historical site exploration.
The 225-mile trip took us along Routes 61, 94, and 88, all of them new to us. Route 88 was a 2-lane road through the
Homochitto National Forest. The scene was very pretty, and very evergreen. I noticed there were Baptist churches everywhere: small communities had at least one church, larger communities had more and larger churches.
I spotted yet another Yuengling Beer truck along the road, claiming to be the oldest beer in the country. We had never heard of it and added it to the shopping list the next time we were in a market, for my beer-loving husband to try.
Once we turned on Route 55S, the road became like a bucking bronco plus
there was roadwork for miles. We seemed to lurch along for miles as if we were skipping over wave wakes, things rattling and shifting behind us. Eventually we turned and continued south on a smoother Route 605 until
it ran into the Gulf. We turned east on coastal Route 90 to Gulf Beach Resort, a brand new park, directly across the road from the beach.
 |
| the Gulf ahead of us |
I was happy to stay in one spot for several days, relaxing for a change after the marathon touring and socializing of the past several weeks. It was also time to catch up on housework and laundry. And get back to a walking and running schedule.
Although we were directly across the street from the beach, this is NOT Pismo. The man-made beach along the Gulf is narrow, and quite noisy from the highway traffic. The natural coastline here is dark brown mud, similar to the swamps of Louisiana. The city covers the mud with a few feet of white sand trucked in from elsewhere. During our visit they were active on the beach with heavy equipment dredging the mud and bulldozing white sand over it. There are several barrier islands a few miles offshore that block the ocean wave action, so the shoreline is more like a lake with a gently lapping water's edge. I missed the sound of the crashing Pismo waves, but we did take our daily walks/runs, alternating between heading west one day then east the next day.
The weather was nice when we arrived but got quite cool the rest of the time. A couple of nights it dipped down to mid 30’s and one day it rained and was quite chilly. It was perfect weather for setting up the machine and working on a couple of Xmas projects.
There were a couple of pretty sunsets that we enjoyed.
On one of our walks we noticed a building right along the beach. There were several plaques on the wall which turned out to be markers showing the storm surge levels from hurricanes Katrina in August 2005, and Camille in August 1969. The red plaque is the hurricane Katrina 23-foot mean sea level water mark; the blue plaque is the hurricane Camille 19.5-foot mean sea level water mark; and the black plaque is the base flood elevation 21-foot water mark, which is the level the city uses for determining flood zones.Both storms brought loss of life and devastation to the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
Folks checking us in at the RV park described how they returned after Katrina to find nothing but a concrete foundation where their house once stood. There was nothing there. Others mentioned how sections of homes or a car had been moved blocks away.
In the photo below, Michael is standing at the top of the landing and his eye level is still below the high water mark for Katrina. It's almost incomprehensible to envision the force and volume of water that surged inland during those storms.
Jefferson Davis Home, Presidential Library and Museum
 |
| Beauvoir, conveniently located a block away from the RV Resort |
A docent dressed in period costume took us through a guided tour of the house. Originally built as a summer house for a wealthy plantation owner, Jefferson Davis was third owner and spent his last days here.
 |
| one of the rooms with original furnishings including the harp played by one of Davis's daughters |
 |
| our guide pointing out the water mark from Katrina when this room was submerged in water for 8 hours |
Next, we went through
the museum and library. The library contains
a biographical exhibit on Jefferson Davis in addition to the research library’s
collection on nineteenth-century Southern history.
We watched a short
movie about his life. Jefferson Davis (1808 –1889) served as the President
of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. Before that he represented
Mississippi in the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives. He was
appointed U.S. Secretary of War, serving under President Franklin Pierce from
1853 to 1857.
Davis was born in
Kentucky and grew up on his older brother's large cotton plantations in
Mississippi and Louisiana.
Davis graduated from the
U.S. West Point Military Academy and served six years as a lieutenant in the US
Army. He fought in the Mexican–American War (1846–1848) as a colonel and armed
his regiment with new rifles, which made them much more effective in combat
compared with the typical smoothbore muskets of the time. As a US senator
and later Secretary of War, he began the surveys for a transcontinental
railroad, proposed the purchase of parts of Arizona from Mexico to locate the
railroad, and implemented other innovations that ironically worked against him
as President of the Confederacy during the Civil War. Although he argued
against secession in 1858, he believed that states had an unquestionable right
to leave the Union. Following the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, South
Carolina and Mississippi seceded from the Union, and Davis resigned the US
Senate and returned to Mississippi. The Governor made Davis a major
general of the army, and the next month he was elected President of the
Confederate States of America.
Jefferson Davis’s
preoccupation with detail, reluctance to delegate responsibility, and other
weaknesses made him a much less effective war leader than his Union
counterpart, Abraham Lincoln. After the war he was captured in 1865,
accused of treason, and imprisoned at Fort Monroe. He was never tried and was
released after two years. A wealthy widow who had heard of his
difficulties invited Davis to stay at her estate and plantation house of
Beauvoir on the Gulf Coast in Biloxi, Mississippi. She left Beauvoir to him in her
will, and it was there that Davis wrote a memoir entitled The Rise and Fall
of the Confederate Government, which he completed in 1881.
We walked over to see
the Confederate Soldier’s Home Cemetery. It was established in 1903 as part of
the Jefferson Davis Soldiers’ Home.
Approximately 780 Confederate veterans,
wives and widows together with members of the Davis family and other civilians
are buried in the historic cemetery. Davis’ father, Samuel Emory Davis, a
Revolutionary War veteran, was re-interred here in 1942.
 |
| tomb of the Unknown Soldier |
There were groups of 8th grade
students on a field trip when we arrived. They came here as part of their 8th grade
state history, and it left me wondering how they viewed this tumultuous period knowing that theirs was a rebel state. You can’t avoid historical
fact and although the Confederacy was short-lived, it was a pivotal period in
the creation of the United States.
By the time we left I had learned about the various Confederate flags of the era (the Stars & Bars is the First National Flag; 2nd and 3rd National Flags; Beauregard Battle Flag; and the Bonnie Blue Flag). I had noticed that at the entrance to the grounds, there were seven different flags flying. 
Tomorrow we head out again, traveling west to College Station, Texas, where we plan to tour the George H.W.Bush Presidential Library. But first we will make an overnight stop in Livingston, Texas, to visit the headquarters of the Escapees organization to which we belong, and tour their mail forwarding service that we use now that we are full-timing.